Raising funds for a charity challenge can be difficult and it’s easy to make mistakes. If you are attempting to raise money for your charity challenge, whether or not it is a long-distance hiking trek or a bike ride, there are a few blunders that you should avoid in order to increase your chances of success on charity challenges.
Assuming You’ll Get Donors Just Because it’s a Good Cause
Even if you are raising money for the best cause in the world, you won’t simply get donors without having the right strategy. In order to succeed, you will need to put effort into make sure people hear about your charity challenge and know how to donate. You can’t expect people to contribute until you give them a powerful reason to. The truth is that many people hold tightly to their money and aren’t inclined to donate to charity causes unless they feel emotionally moved or if they have a good reason. You have to shake them up, grab their attention and show them why it is important to donate.
Not Having a Plan
Not having a plan means that you are planning to fail, as the old saying goes. So, what is your plan for your fundraising efforts? If you haven’t thought about it then you might be holding yourself back from greatness. A good fundraising plan will be thought out and will break down all of the steps that you need to complete to achieve your goals – so that you don’t have to think about it you can just go out there and do it. If you haven’t started with a plan, it’s time to sit down and get going with one right now.
Forgetting to Listen
A lot of the time when you are fundraising you can find yourself just talking rather than listening. However, when you are giving a non-stop monologue to your prospective donor they can find it a little off-putting. No one wants to hear you go on and on about your charity fundraiser. It is better to share the story of what you are doing as concisely as possible, then stop to listen to what your donor has to say. Engage them in a conversation by asking them questions and find out why they are interested in donating to your charity (or why they are not).
Not Saying Thanks
When you are asking people to donate money for your charity challenge, it is absolutely crucial that you thank them afterwards. Your donors should always feel thanked and appreciated. If they don’t, they might start to feel unappreciated, unnoticed or resentful and they might stop giving. Worse, they might start spreading the negative publicity about your charity to others, which might stop you from getting other donations.
Not Setting Up a Website
Creating a website for your fundraising efforts is one of the most important things that you can do when you are raising money for a charity challenge. Without a website, you have no way of showing off what you are doing and explaining to people why they should donate to your charity.
It’s not as hard as you might think to start a website, there are many free services that you can use. Or, you can simply set up a profile on one of the fundraising and crowdsourcing websites. No matter what website you use, your site should have all of the information that the donor needs to know about what you are doing, when, why and how they can donate. It is helpful if the website has a donate button built right into it, so that your potential donors can give their money to your cause with the click of a button. Once you have built the website, make sure that you share it on social media and ask your friends to share it in order to spread the word as far as possible.
Don’t Ruin Your Fundraising Efforts With These Mistakes!
These are just a few of the major fundraising mistakes that many people make when they are raising money for a charity challenge such as charity bike rides or hikes. Keep them in mind so that you can avoid them during your fundraising campaign.